The common rating was step one.478 regarding the plosive updates, step 1.forty-five from the fricative status, step one.707 regarding the nose reputation, and you will step 1.942 in the liquids updates. A decreased section when you look at the Desk 3 summarises the outcome out-of modelling from Set 3. The fresh new standard is the newest fricative status, and we opposed the fresh new plosive compared to. fricative standards, the fresh nasal vs. fricative criteria, plus the drinking water vs. fricative standards. Earliest, the difference between the plosive and fricative conditions wasn’t reputable, as 95% CI in the coefficient imagine provided no [?0.06, 0.09]. Next, new nose compared to. fricative and you may liquid versus. fricative evaluations indicated that each of the coefficient prices have been confident (? = 0.16) (nasal) and you will (? = 0.3) (liquid) and both of the latest 95% CIs failed to were no ([0.09, 0.24] (nasal) and you may [0.23, 0.38] (liquid)), and so indicating you to nonce conditions having nasals and you may liquid have been judged become alot more kawaii labels as opposed to those with fricatives.
Talk
The modern study indicated that (1) labial consonants may end up being of the kawaii than just coronal and you will dorsal consonants, (2) high-frequency consonants may become for the kawaii than simply low-regularity consonants, and you will (3) h2o /?/ and you can nasal /n/ are more likely to be on the kawaii than simply fricative /z/ (and you can plosive /d/). This type of overall performance suggest that the place-of-articulation function associated with the kawaii was [labial], therefore the regularity element for the kawaii was [high-frequency]. The manner-of-articulation feature requires then discussion. Since consonant exhibiting the highest mediocre rating is actually liquids /?/, we could presume that styles-of-articulation element regarding the kawaii is [liquid]. not, because Bayesian analysis presented, nose /n/ is more more likely of the kawaii than just fricative /z/. For this reason, we can stop one to drinking water and you will nasals, both of that are [sonorant], is regarding the kawaii.
Standard discussion
This study showed that the features of consonants associated with kawaii in Japanese are [labial], [high frequency], and [sonorant]. The motivations for the three features are briefly discussed below. The feature [labial] may be linked to a pouting gesture, that is, a gesture made using both lips can induce Japanese people to feel kawaii (Kumagai, 2020). The feature [labial] may also be linked to the image of babies, in that bilabial consonants are more frequent in the earlier phases of language acquisition (Kumagai and Kawahara, 2020). Thus, it can be said that consonants with feature [labial] can evoke the image of babies, at least in Japanese. The feature [high frequency] may stem from briefness, as the frequency code hypothesis states that high-frequency sounds are associated with smallness (Ohala, 1984, 1994). The feature [sonorant] may be connected to a number of observations on sound symbolic effects in names and shapes. Sonorants are better suited for female names or rounded shapes (Shinohara and Kawahara, 2013; Asano et al., 2015). To summarise, the factors associated with kawaii may include pouting gesture, babyishness, smallness, femininity, and roundness. It is interesting that some of these factors overlap with the factors noted by Kinsella (1995) for cute characters. She noted that ‘The essential anatomy of a cute cartoon character consists in its being small, soft, infantile, mammalian, round, without bodily appendages (e.g., arms), without bodily orifices (e.g., mouths), non-sexual, mute, insecure, helpless or bewildered’. (p. 226; emphasis mine). Taking the fact into consideration that Kinsella (1995) was published more than 25 years ago, it is inferred that something that evokes kawaii in the minds of Japanese speakers has not changed for at least 25 years.
As noted in the introduction section, it is well known that sound symbolism plays an important role in ; Klink and Wu, 2014). The exploration of what consonants are better suited for kawaii names is an interesting topic. Based on the above discussion, https://swoonbrides.net/sv/bulgarian-brudar/ it is inferred that the consonants that induce the feeling of kawaii among Japanese people include /p/, /?/, and /m/, as the first consonant /p/ is specified with [labial] and [high frequency], the second consonant /?/ with [sonorant], and the third consonant /m/ with [labial] and [sonorant]. Based on his kawaii judgment experiment with Japanese speakers, Kumagai (2019) discusses whether /m/, in addition to /p/, is another consonant expressive of kawaii in Japanese, since his study results demonstrated that fewest differences existed regarding average scores between nonce words with /p/ and those with /m/. In Japanese words or character names that seem to be associated with kawaii, we find examples that contain /p/, /?/, or /m/. For example, a mimetic word, or onomatopoeia, purupuru, is used to express something soft or something that trembles like jelly. We also find a cute character name pomupomu purin ‘Pom Pom Purin’, created by Sanrio. Moreover, Kawahara (2019) reported that bilabial consonants and /?/ are often used in girls’ names in a popular Japanese anime PreCure, broadcast since 2004. It is expected that these consonants will prove applicable in naming anime characters or products that are characterised by kawaii.
